House of Horror
House of Horror is a DLC expansion level in Viscera Cleanup Detail. After installation, the DLC can be accessed by selecting "Change Game" on the VCD opening menu, then "House of Horror". Players must then go to the level selection page and choose "House of Horror" from the drop-down list, as they would any other map. Players may switch back to the original Viscera Cleanup Detail again at any time. Although other official Viscera Cleanup Detail levels will not appear in the House of Horror selection list, Steam Workshop maps can still be accessed. Runestorm provided the following background about the loose plot of the level: "Long ago in the early 1990's, on a gloomy Halloween night in an old, cursed house, a wicked force began to stir. Foolish mortals dabbled in things they did not understand and could not comprehend. Evil was unleashed. The hapless fools that brought chaos back into the world were slaughtered.. And now it falls to you to set things right. You must wash away the stains of evil. So get your mop ready once more and clean this mess up! The "House of Horror" DLC features a whole new level set in a haunted suburban home and surrounding grounds, complete with new assets and challenges to discover and overcome." Level Briefs Brief Respawn Brief Map Overview House of Horror consists of a large house with a garage, a small shed, a log cabin, and an underground altar. House The main floor of the house contains a living room, dining room, kitchen, three closets/pantries (hallway and dining room), and a garage. The garage contains a large sports car and standing shelves. The garage door is closed, and only accessible via the backyard. The backyard can be reached either through the back door in the kitchen or around the left side of the house. A long staircase on the right of the main hallway leads into a mostly-empty basement with more standing shelves containing food cans, and a washer and dryer against a wall. The door on the right side of the room opens into small bathroom. The door across the room leads to a darker room with a dirt floor covered in chunks of cracked concrete. A "ritualized" corpse can be found inside, along with two intact skeletons and several stone "totems" . Diagonally across the living room of the house is the second floor staircase. The second floor contains a larger bathroom, two small hallway closets, and three bedrooms, all connected by a narrow L-shaped hallway. Inside the last room on the right side of the hallway, there is a door to a narrow staircase leading into a fairly large attic. The attic contains a bed and couch, a ritual blood pentagram , several shelves on the back wall, and other varying objects (crates, trash, candles, etc.). Grounds Surrounding the house is a large C-shaped yard, cut off on one side by the garage. The yard contains the Vendor, What A Load Disposal Bin machine, Slosh-O-Matic, woodchipper, and the J-HARM next to a small shed. The far end of the backyard (the top of the "C" shape) leads to a long, narrow pathway, initially blocked on either side by bushes. At the end of the path there is a locked gate to the right. Walking further to the left will bring the player to a small log cabin. * Behind the locked gate, players can find a stone staircase leading to an underground stone room with an altar. * The log cabin consists of two floors. The main floor contains a small fireplace, couches, shelves, and several other objects. A small trap door can be found on the left side of the room, opening into a very steep stairwell. At the bottom of this stairwell is a stone cellar with a few shelves. Notes and food cans are scattered around the room. Diagonally across the room there is a doorway leading to a corridor blocked by a portal. There are 34 PIDs to collect from all areas of the map. In most VCD levels, PID first and last names are randomized. However in House of Horror, many of the names also appear on written notes which serve to give the player an idea of what took place. Since those names are static, the individual PID names are probably not randomized. Equipment *Slosh-O-Matic Bucket Dispenser *What A Load Disposal Bins Bin Dispenser *Vendor **Jack-O-Lantern (in place of a Work-Site Light) **Candle (in place of a Lantern) * Woodchipper (in place of the Incinerator) * J-HARM Secondary Objectives *Stack crates in the designated area. Level Mechanics Machines & Tools House of Horror does not contain an incinerator. Instead, players may use a woodchipper, fireplace, or portal. * [[Woodchipper|'Woodchipper']]: 'In the backyard is a large red woodchipper. Any object placed into the grinder will get sucked into the machine, rattling around heavily for a short period before finally disappearing into the machine. Shreds of the general colouration of the item can then be seen shooting out the woodchipper's exit chute, aimed over a tall hedge into the neighbour's yard. Unlike the Incinerator, the woodchipper can become covered in messes, and must be cleaned. The shaking may also cause items to fly out of disposal bins. This means the woodchipper must be used with some degree of caution. *'Fireplace: A small fireplace can be found in the log cabin, toward the middle of the right wall. Although the fireplace can be used to dispose of small objects, its small size and long waiting time makes it a less preferable mechanic to use for item removal. * Portal: A purple and green "portal" can be seen blocking a small hallway in the log cabin's basement. The player can toss items into the portal to destroy them, but this disposal method can be impractical for bins and large objects due to the steepness of the staircase. Walking into the portal will kill the player, causing them to explode into several pieces - similar to the effect of Dynamite. The Vendor in House of Horror dispenses lit jack-o-lanterns and candles as an alternative to Work-Site Lights and Lanterns, respectively. (There is a single existing Work-Site Light in the garage, serving as a spotlight.) * Jack-o-lanterns appear as pumpkins of various sizes with a traditional carved face and lit candle in the center. Like the Work-Site Light, jack-o-lanterns shine light in one direction, except the jack-o-lantern light appears as a dim orange and casts the same shape as the jack-o-lantern's face. Other areas are left in shadow, which makes the jack-o-lantern impractical for lighting certain areas. Unlike Work-Site Lights however, jack-o-lanterns are considered "trash" and must be removed from the map in order to obtain a perfect score. *'Candles' function in a similar manner to standard Lanterns or Solar Flares. They emit a bright orange, flickering light in all directions, and can be extinguished if they are placed into water or moved around too quickly. Like the jack-o-lanterns, candles are dispensed in models of varying sizes. The size of the candle does not affect the intensity or range of light it produces. **An extinguished candle or jack-o-lantern can be re-lit by 1) holding it over an existing flame source such as a lit candle, 2) briefly holding/tossing it inside the log cabin fireplace, or 3) using a tool such as the Laser Welder (which must be brought via the Janitor's Trunk). **CAUTION: Placing a candle next to a paper note will cause the note to burst into flame, leaving a small scorch mark. House of Horror introduces a large amount of entirely new objects and textures. Very few items have been recycled from the original Viscera Cleanup Detail. Exceptions include the Janitor's tools, Bin/Bucket Dispensers, Vendor machine, and some mundane objects (plants, trash, soda cans, etc). This is simply because most of the existing resources from other maps would not look proper in a suburban home. *In order to achieve a perfect score, players must destroy the following additional objects: **All jack-o-lanterns (Candles are not considered messes by the Sniffer, so they can be left alone) **All food cans **All knives, cleavers, etc. **Pots and pans, toasters, kettles **Broken glass or vase pieces (intact glassware and vases can be left alone) **Trash bags, trash cans ** The lawn mower from the shed ** The ritual skeletons and stone totems in the basement The map includes a variation of the Big Banger Radio named the "Bad Banger". Aside from a new body colour, screen theme, and new custom soundtrack, the Bad Banger functions identically to the standard Big Banger. (Main article: Big Banger Radio) Keys are needed to unlock both the log cabin and the gate leading to the underground altar. The cabin key (gold color) is hanging from a shelf to the left of the rear kitchen door . The cellar key (moss green color) can be found in the cabin on a small table across the room . To use the keys, simply hold them while "using" the locked door/gate, and a clicking sound will be heard. The keys are not consumed after use (and must be dropped in order to open the doors), so the player can choose to destroy them, or take them back to the Office in the Janitor's Trunk. Tips and Trivia Although the house overlooks a large street, access to the street is blocked by a small white fence and police warning tape. Objects can still pass over the fence however, so players must take caution to not drop anything beyond it that they would not be able to retrieve. The front gate and several tall hedges serve as boundaries for the map. Any objects thrown over these do not leave a decal/splatter, and will despawn after a short while. As one of the developers stated, the object will "get teleported back into the level, just like anything thrown outside the playable area". The player cannot normally pass through or jump over the map bounds. However, if one utilizes the "ghost/fly" console command to move over them while carrying any object, eventually a short sound clip will play and swirling purple lights (like the ones seen at the portal) circle the object for a few seconds until it disappears. Several windows can be found throughout the house, many of which can be opened. Body parts and debris can then be thrown out of the open windows. This is particularly useful for the many boxes found throughout the house, as well as intact bodies which can sag out of the player's field of view and would be unwieldy to carry through the entire house. There are two toilets in the main house: one in the basement and one on the second floor. Like the toilets found in other levels of Viscera Cleanup Detail, they are able to be used as buckets to clean the player's mop or broom. The toilets can also be flushed by pressing the "use" key (left-click by default) with the hands selected and aiming at the toilet's handle. Flushing a dirtied toilet will clean the water for further use. *In order to encourage the player to use the Slosh-O-Matic as well, the toilets become dirty considerably quicker than buckets. They are also much harder to dip tools into, on account of their small size. *Toilet lids can be opened and closed by "using" them like any other item. The lids are also known for behaving strangely in multiplayer mode, often appearing sideways or disappearing altogether. The garage door cannot be opened, but it is also not completely closed. Players can slip thin objects (such as trash can lids, PIDs, weapons, etc.) through the gap at the bottom, and retrieve them from the other side. The player character skin is Halloween themed, with black and white skull facepaint, a skeleton painted over the uniform, and a "custom" helmet. The helmet features horror-themed words and symbols scrawled in blood on the front and side. There are 4 variations: 2 on female characters and 2 on male characters. The female versions are "666" with a pentagram and "Crudux Cruo" (meaning "Fresh Blood"). The male versions are "SATAN" and "Beer". Extras & Easter Eggs House of Horror is intended to act as an homage to numerous classic horror stories and movies, with various recognizable objects and staged "scenes" scattered throughout the map. * Many of the achievements for House of Horror are parodies of classic horror movie titles: Bad Dreams on Helm Street (Nightmare on Elm Street), The Shimmering (The Shining), Thursday the 12th (Friday the 13th), Harroween (Halloween), and Wicked Unliving (Evil Dead). * There are 11 special collectibles in the level which directly reference objects from these classic films, including a chainsaw, "boomstick", "cursed hand", "evil book", hockey mask, machete, clawed glove, white mask & butcher knife, fire axe, and the "one ring". * The fire axe stuck in the door of the second floor bathroom is a reference to the "axe scene" in The Shining; the words scrawled on a wall in the basement are a nod to the "Redrum scene". There is also a letter from Jack Nicholason in the room with chairs. * The items inside the cabin (severed hand, shotgun, chainsaw), the portal in the cellar, the cabin itself, and the evil book in the altar room all reference scenes from The Evil Dead I and II. * The altar statue roughly resembles Cthulhu, a demonic creature featured in H.P. Lovecraft's horror novels. *When holding the ring, the player's view is obscured with a shimmering "ghost realm" visual effect, as it does in the Lord of the Ring films. Dropping it removes the effect. In multiplayer mode, the player holding the ring is invisible to other players. *The Ouija board is not considered a collectible for achievement purposes, but it may still be brought back to the Office via the Janitor's Trunk. * * A painting of The Last Supper by Da Vinci can be found in the dining room of the main house. If the player stands in front of it, after a few seconds it begins to change into a "creepier" version, with organs covering the tables . A taxidermied deer head can be found above the fireplace in the log cabin. When hit with the mop, it will begin to move, facing the player and laughing with a high-pitched chuckle. Image Gallery VCD Soundtrack Art Horror.jpg DLC-Horror Bad-Banger.jpg DLC-Horror_Streetview.jpg DLC-Horror_Starting-Area1.jpg DLC-Horror_Backyard1.jpg DLC-Horror_Backyard-Woodchipper.jpg DLC-Horror Woodchipper-left.jpg DLC-Horror_Cabin-front.jpg HoH-Collectibles.jpg DLC-Horror_PlayerSkin.jpg Category:Levels Category:Games Category:House of Horror Category:Collectibles